Sept. 30, 2015: Today the Action Agencies released their 2014 Annual Progress Report describing their actions to protect ESA-listed Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead under NOAA Fisheries’ biological opinion for operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.

Some highlights:

• ​ Record-breaking returns of hatchery and wild Chinook, coho and sockeye contributed to the biggest salmon returns to Bonneville Dam since counting began in 1938.

•  Juvenile fish travel time through the eight federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers continued to be shorter than the pre-BiOp period, roughly 10 days for both chinook and steelhead in the latter weeks of the migration season.

•  Manufacturing began on the first of a new generation of turbines designed to advance improvements in fish passage. The turbine will be installed at Ice Harbor Dam. "Fish friendly" turbine designs will be used as turbines are replaced throughout the hydrosystem

•  A five-year program to manage Caspian terns in Central Washington's Potholes Reservoir reduced predation on steelhead from 15.7 to 2.9 percent and predation on spring Chinook from 2.6 to 0.5 percent.

•  Together with their state and tribal partners in the Columbia River Basin, the agencies have protected and restored more than 6,400 acres of estuary habitat and opened up over 2,500 miles of new fish habitat and protected more than 300,000 acre feet of water. 

Ice Harbor Dam will be the first federal dam in the Columbia River Basin ​where a new generation of advanced "fish friendly" turbines will be installed.